Baseball: Burlington Central nips Kaneland
Other than the relief pitchers toiling for the Burlington Central and Kaneland baseball teams on a chilly, windy Thursday, Rockets center fielder David Lauber probably had the warmest arm on the field.
Boy, did he make good use of it to finish off a 3-2 nonconference home win.
Lauber pitched the first four innings for Central, but by the top of the seventh he was patrolling center field with his Rockets trying to protect the 1-run lead he had staked them to with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth.
Kaneland, playing its season opener, didn't go quietly. The Knights had Josh Norman on second base with two outs after he led off with a walk and advanced on Josh Pollastrini's one-out groundout.
That brought Luke Gomes to the plate to face Central senior reliever Brandon Van Buren, who had already tossed 2 scoreless innings. Gomes fouled off the first pitch with the wind howling in his face. He then sent a single up the middle toward Lauber in center field.
With Norman rounding third and headed for home as the potential tying run, Lauber charged the rolling single, gathered the ball and fired a strike to the plate, an always challenging throw made even trickier considering how taught the windblown American flag in center field was at the time.
Lauber played the wind just right.
"As soon as he threw that I knew it was right on the money," Van Buren said.
Central catcher Matt Termini caught the ball in the air three steps ahead of Norman's arrival and applied the tag for the final out, setting off a mini midfield celebration.
"I was actually nervous because I thought it was going to be a short hop," Termini said, "but it was literally perfect, just a couple inches off the ground. I just caught it and he slid right into me. I didn't have to do any of the work."
Lauber said the throw felt good out of his hand.
"Right when I released it I knew it was going to be a perfect strike," he said. "As soon as Matt caught it everyone knew it. It was good. I'm just glad I made the play."
The defensive gem capped a comeback by Central (2-0), which trailed 2-0 after half an inning. Kaneland opened the game by scoring a pair of unearned runs against Lauber, helped by a pair of Central errors.
The Rockets evened the score in the bottom of the second with a pair of unearned runs against Robbie Dudzinski. Both runs scored when Kaneland's center fielder couldn't squeeze a windblown flyball with two outs.
Dudzinski pitched well in his season debut. He lasted 5 innings, struck out 6, walked 3 and allowed 5 hits.
Lauber delivered the big hit in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded and one out. He sent a 1-2 pitch from Kaneland left-handed reliever Clay Hendricks (0-1) into the right-center field gap. The ball dropped between converging outfielders, scoring junior Zach Schutta, who opened the inning by drawing a walk.
That set the stage for Lauber's throw to the plate in the top of the seventh.
"The kid made a nice throw but that didn't win the game for them or lose the game for us," Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said. "It was a bunch of errors that both teams made. But this is our first game out. We just didn't play up to our standards. Obviously, the conditions had a little bit to do with that but we're not going to make excuses."